5+ Best Voice Recorders (Reviews + Ratings)

Lightweight, compact, easy to use, and simply incredible at picking up voices even in the noisiest of surroundings the Sony UX560 digital voice recorder is everything you want and need in one of these gadgets.

It’s ideal for students to capture lecturers, journalists for interviews, any meetings which need to be recorded, and many other situations. Don’t even think that your smartphone can do the job.

This voice recorder can eliminate extraneous background noise and pick up the voices with amazing accuracy in all manner of situations where you wouldn’t imagine that it possibly could.

Weighing only 1.7oz and measuring 10.8x2.9x17.1cm the recorder is very easy to carry anywhere in a pocket or attached to your clothing (belt) in a pouch or pocket.

It comes with software which allows you to optimise the settings for each situation you’re in and monitor recording levels. There is an inbuilt stereo microphone and voice operated recording options including wide/stereo, narrow/focus and normal.

There’s an internal memory of 4GB and a micro-SD card slot for masses of additional external storage and easy transfer onto your other devices. With a user-friendly interface you can store, search and play all your recordings. There is a headphone jack and a mic input Playback at various speeds

The unit has a Lithium-ion battery and inbuilt USB charging jack which connects without wires directly to any port on a PC or battery pack, giving you hours of use. It also takes 2xAAA batteries (supplied).

Sony’s ICD-PX470 digital voice recorder can record even the faintest of audio sounds without unwanted background and other noise.

This is due to the high-sensitivity low-noise S-microphone in the recorder.

The unit also has an adjustable microphone which allow you to capture the sounds you really want and shut out those you don’t. The filter cuts out low-frequency background noise like traffic, wind and low muffled conversations.

So, it can be set in Focus mode to record a narrow field of sound from one direction, or Wide-Stereo mode for meetings where you have voices coming from 360 degrees. There are four pre-set scenes to choose from as well: music, meeting, interview and dictation.

Whatever sounds you’re recording you’ll get superior clarity from the PX470.

You can choose from two file formats (MP3 or Linear PCM) for both recording and playback.

Transcription playback and Digital Pitch Control make writing down the recording easier by allowing easy fast forward and rewind, marking your spot and slowing down the play back. Recordings are tagged by date, and the device has an internal calendar for easy reference.

The recorder has an internal memory of 4GB and a micro-SD slot as well. The pop-out USB charging jack can be plugged directly into a PC or battery pack with no need for cables and will give you many hours of recording.

The unit also takes 2 x AAA batteries (included).

Weighing only 72.6g and measuring 1.9x3.8x11.4cm the recorder is easily carried around in a pocket or by hand. A pouch on a belt would be the ideal way to carry and use it.

Featuring an Intelligent Auto Mode, the Olympus Digital Voice Recorder is great for all recording situations but particularly where there are changing distances between the recorder and the voices such as in lectures or large conferences and meetings.

The Auto Mode optimises the recording level as required to ensure a good recording quality is maintained throughout.

The recorder also has Simple mode which enables new voice recorder users to easily understand how to operate one with an intuitive interface. A more experienced user can switch to Normal mode for the full menu options.

Because of its two low-noise, high sensitivity directional microphones this recorder achieves a high quality and very realistic stereo sound and feeling. The playback features include a Voice Balancer which equalises the volume levels. The Noise Cancel mode gives an even clearer and crisper playback quality.

The recorder has 8GB of built-in memory, a built-in USB charger connector (no cables required), and a built-in stand (great for meetings etc).

Compact and lightweight (only 77g) the recorder is easily placed in a pocket or on one’s belt for easy carrying around. As well as USB charging for the Lithium-ion battery, it uses 2 x AAA batteries (included with purchase).

The BX140 digital voice recorder from Sony is a compact unit with a user-friendly interface that makes it ideal for new voice recorder users.

The unit features a powerful built-in speaker, good-size control buttons and a nice LCD screen that is very easy to read and understand.

The unit records in either MP3 or HVXC format. It has a built-in 300mW speaker for clear playback. There’s a headphone jack for playback.

It has a large 4GB internal memory which equates to around 1,000+ hours of recording. The device allows you to store named files (up to 99 per folders and up to 495 total files). Other functions include several in Playback and Edit modes such as speed control, easy search, erase, move file, noise cut etc.

The unit uses 2 X AAA batteries (supplied with purchase) which provides approximately 45 hours of use in MP3 format.

Weighing only 72g the recorder is easy to carry around with you and will fit into a pocket.

This voice recorder is not designed to perform all the functions which the more expensive ones do, including other Sony models, but it is ideal for new users and for dictation and simple, uncomplicated tasks like that, where background noise, varying noise levels etc are not an issue.

Whether you’re recording meetings, conferences, concerts, lectures, or just bird noises you will not regret purchasing the Philips 8GB 3 Mic Voice Tracer audio recorder. It has so many excellent features that it’s hard to know where to begin.

To start with the Voice Tracer has a motion sensor which automatically adjusts the microphone settings to best suit the changing environment.

So, for example, if you suddenly enter a noisy space while you’re recording the microphone will adjust to compensate for the additional background noise. You will never miss a word.

And better still perhaps, the recorder has a 3 Microphone Audio with Auto Zoom to suppress extraneous background noise and zoom in on the voice(s) you want to record in superior quality at all times.

Each microphone operates independently to best record the voices at any given moment, with the motion sensor and auto zoom contributing to the selection of which microphone is the optimum at the time.

The Voice Tracer has a 5-second pre-record function which lets you record the 5 seconds before you actually press Record to catch the beginning of a conversation or lecture.

You can Plug and Play with Windows, Mac OS or Linux to store, back up and share all your recordings.

And finally, with 8GB of internal memory and a micro-SD card slot you’ll never run out of recording space with the Philips Voice Tracer.